Narratology

Literary Elements

• Action
• Conflict
• Pace
• Dialogue
• Character
• Plot
• Genre
• Language
• Mood
• Narrative mode
• Narrative structure
• Point of view
• Setting
• Style
• Theme
• Tone

Character

• Characterization
  • Character arc
  • Character flaw
  • Focal character
  • Foil
• Narrator
• Protagonist
  • False protagonist
  • Antihero
  • Gothic double
  • Title character
  • Tragic hero
• Deuteragonist
• Tritagonist
• Antagonist
  • Archenemy
• Supporting character
• Stock character
  • Straight man

Setting

• Alternate history
• Crossover
• Dystopia
• Utopia
• Future history
• Mythical place
• Parallel universe
• Virtual reality

Plot

• Plot device
  • Ochi
  • Unreliable narrator
  • Ticking time bomb scenario
  • Story within a story
  • Predestination paradox
  • Plot twist
  • Narrative hook
  • Backstory
  • Shaggy dog story
  • Self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Poetic justice
  • Red herring
  • Deus ex machina
  • Eucatastrophe
  • Cliffhanger
  • In medias res
  • Chekhov’s gun
  • MacGuffin
  • Frame story

Narrative Technique

• Occam’s razor
• Cliche
• Foreshadowing
• Flashback
• Flashforward
• Reveal
• Suspense
• Trope
• Show, don’t tell
• Suspension of disbelief

Narrative Structure

• Story arc
• Kishōtenketsu
• Subplot
• Dramatic structure
  • Three-act structure
    • Opening narration
    • Rising action
    • Resolution
• Freytag’s pyramid
  • Exposition
  • Rise
  • Climax
  • Return or fall
  • Catastrophe, denouement, resolution, revelation, rising and sinking
• Linear narrative
• Nonlinear narrative
• Interactive narrative
• Multiple ending

Perspective

• Audience surrogate
• Author surrogate
• First-person narration
• Second-person narration
• Third-person narration
• Breaking the fourth wall
• Defamiliarization
• Magical realism
• Multiplespectivity
• Stream of consciousness
• Stream of unconsciousness
• Unreliable narrator
• Diegesis
• Mimesis
• Self insertion